Note 251 — A CYCLOPÆDIA OF PRACTICAL RECEIPTS, PROCESSES, AND COLLATERAL INFORMATION (continued 28)

“After death the buried body returns to its elements and gradually, and often by the means of other forms of life which prey on it, a large amount of it forms carbonic acid, ammonia, sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen, nitrous and nitric acids, and various more complex gaseous products, many of which are very fetid, but which, however, are eventually all oxidised into the simpler combination. The non-volatile substances, the salts, become constituents of the soil, pass into plants, or are carried away into the water percolating through the ground. The hardest parts, the bones, remain in some soils for many centuries, and even for long periods retain a portion of their animal constituents.”—Parkes.